The Army Just Strapped a Laser to an Apache Helicopter for the First Time

The U.S. Army and Raytheon marked a milestone yesterday as an Apache helicopter demonstrated the first test firing of a high energy laser system from a military rotorcraft. The test achieved all "primary and secondary goals," and the results will be used to help develop test equipment into a viable weapon system.

The test, conducted by the Army's U.S. Army Apache Program Management Office, U.S. Special Operations Command, and defense contractor Raytheon, was conducted at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. According to Raytheon, the Apache helicopter was outfitted with a test laser connected to the Multi-Spectral Targeting System, an advanced electro-optical infrared sensor typically found on unmanned drones such as the Predator and Reaper. Raytheon claims the test was the first time a high energy laser was tested from a helicopter on "a wide variety of flight regimes, altitudes and air speeds."

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The laser used in the test was not a weapon, nor does Raytheon claim it was. Raytheon doesn't even bother to include the laser's wattage. (It almost certainly was nothing like the laser weapon fitted on the USS Ponce uses 33 kilowatts of power.) The laser used in the test was more of a stand-in for a future high energy weapon that may someday arm the U.S. military's helicopters.

Lasers are common across the U.S. military, and the Apache helicopter has had one since first entering service in the 1980s. Current lasers, however, are low-power devices used for precisely determining range to target and for marking targets for friendly forces to find and weapons such as laser-guided bombs and Hellfire missiles to home in on. They are ineffective as weapons and barely comparable to the equipment used for this test, much less actually laser weaponry.

"This data collection shows we're on the right track," said Art Morrish, vice president of Advanced Concept and Technologies for Raytheon Spaceand Airborne Systems in a Raytheon press release. "By combining combat proven sensors, like the MTS, with multiple laser technologies, we can bring this capability to the battlefield sooner rather than later."

Apaches armed with laser weapon. Raytheon graphic.

A video released by Raytheon shows the test laser occupying one of the four wing pylons on the test Apache where four Hellfire missiles or a pod of 70-millimeter rockets would normally go. Footage apparently recorded through the Multi-Spectral Targeting System shows the laser shining on a military trailer.

A laser weapon on the Apache would, as Defense Newspoints out, greatly increase an Apache's firepower. The four wing pylons on an Apache can each carry up to four Hellfire anti-tank missiles, for a total of 16 missiles. Armed with a laser an Apache could probably carry 12 missiles and a laser weapon. The laser would be capable of an number of shots restricted only by the amount of power on hand. The ability to generate and store large amounts of power is a major stumbling obstacle for laser weapons, but if that problem can be straightened out, the cost per shot is about as low as things get.